2013年3月12日火曜日

What spring means

I've been thinking lately about spring. Yes, it's getting warmer and the days are longer (curse you, daylight savings thing that makes us lose an hour).

But it's more than that.

I mean, firstly, there is the earthquake from 2011. March makes us feel (well, I feel) very somber and conscious about life.
The theme of life and death, sadly enough, fits in with the season.
Japan has the tradition of ending the school/fiscal year in March, and so spring is associated with the end of something as much as the start of something new. It's when everything changes. Graduation season starts around late February, and schools and new recruits in companies start their year in late March-early April. Sure, there are happy things like cherry blossoms, the flower viewing parties (called ohanami), and the sudden increase in pastel colored clothing on girls.
Spring is, in the end, a bittersweet season.

But here, in Canada, I feel something upbeat.
To roughly sum up what I've heard or overheard, spring is the anticipation of more warm weather, which means you can drink beer outside and do campfires and have barbecues. It's much more straightforward in enjoying the season and what it offers.
There's also Easter, which I don't get.

I don't even really know anymore what I wanted to say.
What I meant, I guess, is that spring isn't necessarily always a joyous thing. It makes you think, it can make you sad, it means the end as much as a start.
And maybe Japan has this thing about seeing beauty in sadness. Spring and cherry blossoms aren't just pretty, they're also inexplicably melancholic.

Maybe I'm just missing home, and the complexities and subtleties of the world I grew up in.